Life - One Day at a Time

Monday, July 7, 2014

Well, I didn't follow up on posting my training progress like I thought I would. But, I trained according to my plan and ran Grandma's Marathon on June 21, 2014. This was my 27th Grandma's and my 42nd marathon overall. It all went well. Now it is into summer activities around the ranch and I may or may not be back to this blog to fill in the missing log notes.

Monday, March 24, 2014

The green gate run is another up the Sherman Road route. The last part just before the turn-around is a good steep climb, more of which can be found by continuing up just a bit more. Next time, that is the plan.

The up and back run on Sherman makes a good repetitive course. It would be nice to have a little more flexibility in the exact route, but that would also require more flexibility on my part, too, since I would need to be able to slip through barbed wire fences and jog dodging trees in the trail-less woods, still maintaining a reasonable pace and distance. So, it is I stick to the easily logged routes.

My running speed did not result in a record setter again today. I chatted with John at the turnaround and the GPS ticked off more than 15 minutes of time. It was a good run back down the hill, but some snow melt was taking place so the road was a bit slippery and muddy.

This was a mid-day run and I wasn't in much of hurry. I gathered cans along the side of the road while running the black-top mile. Then, as I was part way up Sherman Road, some neighbors were out cutting up a tree along the road, so I stopped and chatted for a bit. The rest of the run up the hill to the turn-around was somewhat muddy and slow going, too. I don't remember seeing any "green" along the route up and back! (Still some snow with a winter like look to the ground).

Friday, March 21, 2014

The sky cleared a bit so I decided to do a late afternoon 'slog' (slow jog). This was actually a pretty nice run but not a record breaker. Mostly I did it to try to keep the mileage close to my training plan. I originally had a 6-11 mile pair of runs planned for the Friday-Saturday slots last week. But, the cat bite on Thursday resulted in skipping the Friday run altogether (at the suggestion of the ER doctor) and limiting the Saturday run to five, rather than eleven, miles. So today was actually planned to be an "off" day that I changed to another 5-miler. It was a fine outing. I'll return to the original training routine this week.

Thanks to Torrie Cat, I got an unexpected day off yesterday (and a trip to the ER on Thursday evening/midnight!).

The Story: Before going for the run on Thursday, March 13th, I was browsing at my laptop as usual during the morning coffee time. One of the ranch cats that has managed to become mostly and 'indoor' cat, was around, as usual, too. She had walked across my keyboard a couple of times so I encouraged her to settle down on my lap, instead. That went well, for the most part, until suddenly, she nipped me with a bite on the wrist. She left my lap after that, and I went and dabbed a little hydrogen peroxide on the tiny tooth hole and did my run followed by normal activities for the day. (A little fencing project was done to keep the new puppy from slipping under a corral fence rail and getting into the corral and outer pastures).

I didn't think anything about the bite until around 4:30 to 5:00 PM after the fencing project was done. After putting away the tools and left over materials, I actually made a snowball or two and held it against my wrist since it was feeling a bit sore. So the day and evening continued until after supper when I decided to do some internet scans regarding cat bites. I found a couple of articles that were a little (a lot) alarming, but continued on with the evening through the last animal check (after 10:00 PM). By that time, I had mentioned the bite to my wife, and she too read some of the internet articles about the dangers of cat bites. So, it was off to the ER for a late night check! After an anti-biotic IV, and a trip to a 24-hour pharmacy, the day was finally over around 1:30 to 2:00 AM.

Update: No problems after the ER stop. The swelling and soreness in the wrist went away over the next couple of days. And, as of this date (March 20, 2014) all is well. Torrie still resides mostly in the house and probably will not lose her head to science.

The running information: Same as my last run, I just changed the running direction during the triangle portion. It was not easier. In fact, I walked a bit early on while coming up the hill. It was windy again, too! I walked the last half-mile or more (blaming it on finding a basketball) during the up-hill return trip. (Walking is okay while on the route to 66, too!)

About Me

Updates beginning in 2014 to reactivate my postings with more current information. I am beginning "The Route to 66" series as I start my training program in preparing to run another marathon. This one will be in June, 2014.
For a historical review read the blog entries, especially some of the older original entries.